In sports such as tennis, volleyball and soccer, a player needs to perform the direction-changing action and the braking action many times. Due to such characteristics of these sports, the upper needs to be stable in the transverse direction. Therefore, the stability of the upper has been ensured for present-day athletic shoes by using an artificial material having a high rigidity or a polyurethane-made resin material.
However, while these shoes enjoy their high stability, they are heavy and the upper buckles when bent, and the fitting quality is poor. Particularly, due to the characteristics of the sports described above, the upper undergoes a twist, or the like, in addition to simple deformations such as stretching and shrinking. Therefore, uncomfortable creases are likely to occur (awkwardness is likely to be felt on the surface of the foot), and there is a demand for improving the fitting quality. Uppers have been under development that partially use a low-rigidity mesh member or stretchable member as a way to improve the fitting quality.